Hello from New York

My NYC News—June 2009

Hi—I miss everybody but NY is amazing.
Went to two plays over the weekend with my friend Anne from CA--HAIR and “God of Carnage”….both plays were very high quality and very expensive. We also spent a lot of time in the Village, where we used to go as teenagers. It is great that we had this time together in NY--she and her family may come visit us in CR.

I have been to some wonderful music venues in the city. Joe’s Pub and Cornelia café are my favorites, though I also like the Bitter End. I find that if I go out once/week, I get a mental lift which balances the city’s shortcomings. These being my 3rd time here, I now have some friends— though working eves and alternate weekends limit free time for social outings. I went with my friend Betty to see Lion King last week—we went to a Moroccan bar afterwords where people were smoking hookah water pipes at the tables—not sure what was in the pipes but it did not come into the air. And Lion King with those puppets and African music was incredible.

As stimulating and exciting as it is here, it is hard to be away from Joe and my life in Costa Rica. I miss everything about Costa Rica—the clean air and water, time to be in the present, and my friends. It feels like I breathe with my whole body when I am there. I am getting over a cold here in NY with a dry cough which I think is related to the cold damp weather and dirty air.

Our plan is for me to go to Costa Rica on July 27th for three weeks and then come back here for another three months, assuming I can get another contract. It sounds like a lot of time but we do need the money. Our plans for Costa Rica are still to sell our place in Nosara and move to more affordable, closer to medical care, San Carlos. Joe found a property he loved in San Carlos (scroll down the blog for some pics)—hopefully we will find a similar property when we are able to buy—his visit helped us confirm that we want to move there.

Joe tells me our fruit trees on our property in Nosara are maturing and that we now have mangos. We have had oranges and limes in the past—and of course, bananas. He is working on a vegetable garden. We need a buyer who wants this kind of life all ready made---I know they are out there. We need a realtor to help us find a buyer.

We have a new kitten, Sonia, named after Sonia Sotamayor. Ainsley is the only one left of the 3 cats we brought down from Boston. Our dogs are cute as ever—Frieda continues to tremble in fear and hide during thunderstorms—and Nina remains relatively stable though she does stalk and stare at poor Ainsley. Joe tells me that Sonia licks Frieda’s forehead during her fear-spells.

Write back when you have a minute—I love to hear from everybody. Or call Joe…Our numbers are at the top of the blog….And I am now on facebook…Love Helena and Joe

San Carlos-Joe's favorite property (so far)

Nosara April 2009

Hi everybody:
My next post will be from NY. I will be arriving April 21st and will start working at Beth Israel Hospital April 27th --the same place as last year. I am back in Astoria with Muzich starting May 1st—she found me a place near her apt for the first 2 weeks. I will be away from Costa Rica for at least 13 weeks. As soon as I have a phone number, I will post it on the top of the blog.

No major movement on selling our house yet. People are slowing hearing about it. It is a beautiful place we have here—we have to find the right person at the right time. We are listed with some brokersand I will be putting it on some Internet sites soon. Scroll down the blog for some pics which I have sent to real estate people.

I am finally at-one with my quad driving it everywhere. It is sturdier and safer than a motorcycle and it hugs the terrain like a mini tractor. It is still sometimes disconcerting to feel wobbling and sliding on uneven earth but I wear a helmet (both for safety reasons and to keep my hair clean) and it is a great vehicle for errands. I actually drove Joe on the back to a doctor’s appt to have his cast removed. His wrist appears to be healing fine—he still has some pain but less every day.

The weather is now hot, dry, and dusty—April is the height of the dry season. For a few days there was a fire in the mountain across the way to the left of our biergarten. It started as a controlled fire for reforestation—then the winds came and spread the flames. For three days we watched it burn before the fire dept contained it.

Our next new home, which we expect to be in San Carlos, is intermittently rainy throughout the year, though the only time it rains a lot is in Dec. We had hoped to visit again before I go to the states but it looks like Joe will be going with Gunter in May to further investigate the area. There are a couple of properties which sounds interesting to us but again, we need to sell here before we can move.

The water in my swimming pool is quite warm now, and the bougainvilleas are brilliantly colored. When I finish my noon swim, I can look at the mountains or the Pacific Ocean. We have a new outdoor kitchen. The air and water are clean and pure and it is an incredible place to be.

Come visit while we are still here and the life we have here still exists—once the roads are paved it will be different—more amenities and less nature.

Write when you have a minute—or call Joe in CR or me in NY… Love Joe and Helena

Nosara March 2009

Nosara March 2009

The only blemish on the fabulous St. Patrick’s Day party was that toward the end of the evening, Joe broke his wrist—details later, he says. We had at least 200 people, Joe’s nephews visiting; a good team of bartenders, a good cook, and live music. We will likely go to San Jose on Monday to have the wrist x-rayed and treated. We are recently back from Ciudad Quesada and we loved it—this will be our next home—temperate weather, close to medical facilities and other amenities, and lower cost of living. We had a great time with Pedro and Lisa, met many people, looked at lots and found one we liked. However, we cannot buy until we sell here so like the rest of the world we wait and hope for the economy to recover so that people will spend again. Our best prospect for selling appears to be realtors in the states.

Joe’s nephew Chris has been helping me get comfortable with my quad. He has been riding on the back while I go up and down the mountain—soon I will be doing it myself. I have started the process of trying to get back to NY to work in the spring/ summer. It will be great to see my family and friends, take a writing class, check out Yoga studios, etc. not to mention all that the city has to offer. Hopefully there will be a spot for me at Beth Israel Hospital—it looks promising.

It has been windy on and off here which means there are snow storms in the northeast—however extreme the weather is here, it is always warm.

Our drive to Ciudad Quesada was a challenge. One hour after we left Nosara, on a dirt road to Nicoya, every so often the car would rock from side to side. We finally figured out that the problem was the bushings and that the car would rock when we went over 25 miles per hour (15 km per hour). It was a Sunday, no mechanics were working, so we crawled to Ciudad Quesada, passing the scenic road around Lake Arenal—a 6 hour trip took close to 2 days which included staying overnight in Nuevo Arenal.. It was fairly stressful, especially not knowing exactly what the problem was and if it would get worse.

I met Kelly Patterson, a former AIDS worker in South Africa who is dynamic and encouraging of our efforts here. We have started procuring and distributing condoms and have another Tica pharmacist and a Tica yoga teacher in our group. So our efforts here are moving along.

Write when you can. I hope to be in NY soon. Love Helena and Joe

Nosara Feb 2009

Nosara Feb 2009

Just after Ginger and Mark left to return to Boston, we began experiencing hurricane force winds. It lasted 5 days and was quite scary. I was afraid to go out with the debris flying around and the roof was rattling like crazy. About one quarter of the roof blew off and now we are dealing with the repairs. Ginger and Mark spent part of their time in Samara which is more developed than Nosara and has safer swimming. Their daughter, Molly, was pulled out by a current in Nosara the first day they were here and we all got a scare. Having no infrastructure in Nosara means no regular lifeguards and no current or storm warnings. When it is windy here, there are snow storms in the northeast and however bad the weather is here, at least it is warm.

We are continuing with selling the house and trying to move. We are listed with a couple of brokers but it seems that people are waiting to see how the economy turns out before they make large purchases. So we have to wait too. We were all set on the Puriscal-Ciudad Colon area in the Central Valley until our friends Peter and Lisa came by. They just moved from Nosara to the Ciudad Quesada area and they love it. They have a 100 acre farm with a stream, sheep, cows, views of the Arenal volcano, and a chapel (it used to be a monastery). We would like to buy a few acres so we could build a house, a pub, and maybe have a few sheep, black if possible. We would be 2 ½ hours from San Jose, which is a little more than we would like, but everything is cheaper there. There are fewer expatriates and no tourists. Instead there are hardworking Tico farmers and Ticos with a lot of money, i.e. the ones that own the bus lines, etc. There are also a lot of volunteers who come from all over the world to work on the farms. We will visit soon and see if the pub would work. Everything else sounds good.

We are expecting visitors next month, my friends Julia and Lorraine from Beth Israel Hospital, NY--another nurse friend, this time from the Bay area, Terri and her friend Joyce are coming this month. And Joe’s nephew Chris is coming in March, the first of either of our families to visit. We are preparing for our 3rd anniversary party on Saturday. We had a pre-wedding party last week. Hosting other people’s parties has been great so far—we do the bar, they do the food and music, they pay for our staff and give Joe and me a meal in lieu of a rental fee.

I have some new psych referrals and the bar is going great. My women’s group continues to move along. I write articles on sex eduction for the local paper—they translate my articles but I am not sure how widely they are read in Spanish—I am told the locals get headaches when they read. I have written and sent out essays to be published in the Sun magazine. (Nothing accepted yet). I think I need a teacher. If I go to NY to work again this spring, and I hope I do, I will take another class with the Gotham Writers group.
My email contacts on Google were eliminated for two months and now they are back making it much easier to send emails. We are in our last phase of being in Guanacaste so if you want to see this remote part of Costa Rica before it disappears with the paved roads, come now. Please write back when you can. Take care, Joe and Helena

Nosara January 2009

Nosara January 2009

Now that we have decided to move everything has a different focus. We looked at neighborhoods in the San Jose area and we are interested in Ciudad Colon. There are beautiful mountain lots and it is close enough to the city to make life easier—medical care, land-line telephone, internet, garbage pick-up, etc. We will build—it is cheaper, we will get closer to what we want including at least a ½ acre of land. We just listed our property —the market is flat –but you only need one buyer. Joe is working on designing the new house which will include an on-site pub. A commercial venture in Ciudad Colon will be step two—once we stabilize with our new house and private pub.

We finally got our car back with a new engine. Thanks to our neighbors, Emily and Peter who often helped us get to town, we survived 4 months without a car. My quad is here and I am challenging myself with riding it--there is more to it than I expected—maneuvering on rough terrain on inclines is scary. I went to town with a friend last week—she had her own quad—and did ok.

The pub continues to do well. We are open Fri and Sat and for small groups and private parties. It is easier for me to bartend on regular nights than to hire people—we had 40 people one night over a 7 hour period and I did fine—Joe helped with pouring beer when I made cocktails. Our New Years Eve party was great—about 175 people--smaller than last year but we made more money, we knew more of the people and someone had fireworks which they set off in the garden--it was great.

Our woman’s group, Mujeres Saludables de Nosara, (translated to Nosara Woman’s Health) continues to develop. We will soon be a NGO (non governmental organization) and have our own bank account. We raised a small amount of money which we are using to finance educational presentations and Xerox printed materials from the Our Bodies, Ourselves series. Our first talk last month went well and I am writing articles on birth control and sexually transmitted diseases for the Voice of Nosara. People recognize me from my picture.

Last week I was on the public bus with a teenager and her 2 day old baby. She was coming back from Nicoya, two hours away, alone, after delivering her baby at the Nicoya Hospital. When she got off the bus in Nosara, she had another 6 miles to go on foot. We saw her on the road nursing her baby and offered her a ride part-way. Evidently it is a common practice for girls to go to Nicoya alone to have their babies--the family not always having the means to send someone with them. The girl seemed very happy with her new baby; she told me it was her second.

Today, we look forward to Ginger and Mark and their family visiting from Boston. It is vacation for us when people visit because we get to enjoy the area too. The weather is beautiful, blue skies, warm breezes, always sunny, temperature in the 80’s. Write when you can. And visit!!—while we are still here! Love Helena and Joe

Nosara Dec 2008

Nosara December 2008

Joe and I are reevaluating our life here. Our original plan was to give Nosara 5 years and as we move into year #3, we are beginning to consider possible alternatives for the future. We are leaning toward moving closer to the Central Valley near the capital for various reasons, among them being closer to medical care in our later years. Another reason is that Joe always had the dream of pursing a commercial version of the Black Sheep. There is nothing like our pub in Costa Rica and here in Nosara it is very popular with educated Ticos, tourists, and expatriates. The Central Valley has a temperate climate, mountain views, and large concentrations of our key groups of clients. Our friends from San Jose are very encouraging about locating the Black Sheep Pub in the Central Valley and we also have received encouragement about finding possible investors. Over the next few weeks we will be making decisions about listing our property, where to move and where to locate the pub.

The rainy season was not too bad for us this year—the worst of it was non-stop heavy rains for 3 days flooding the town and surrounding areas. We, being without our car (12 weeks total), freed us of car problems, and we adjusted to tagging along with people to go to town for supplies. We mostly stayed on the mountain with our great views (i.e. clouds coming down forming rings on the mountains), the clean air, and the warm breezes and I did some hiking on the mountain with our neighbors, Peter and Emily.

Before we decided to move, we ordered a new ATV (all terrain vehicle) a 250 cc Yamaha product called a Genesis. This is a great vehicle for our dirt roads here and is better on gas than a car. We intend to enjoy our last year here and do a lot of exploring on our ATV. We will either sell it or take it with us to our new home—once my check clears it will be delivered.

The Black Sheep Pub continues its trajectory of success. We hosted a party for our friend Andre’s 60th birthday—a Swiss and German crowd (over 100 people) with live music and catered food-- a classy event. Last week a young Tico couple from San Jose visited and rented one of our guest rooms for the night. We are listed in a Costa Rican guidebook—three lines about the private authentic English pub in the hills of Nosara intrigued them enough to find us. They loved the pub and they are now our friends who may be helpful toward helping us with our relocation to the Central Valley.

The high season is here—the dry winds have started, the skies are blue, and the rain is mostly gone. I am back with my woman’s health project—one of the local hotels is sponsoring a educational event for us in early Dec and I have an upcoming article about our work in Voice of Nosara. I also have ads in the paper for counseling and breathwork.

So if you want to visit, come now—we expect it will take a while to sell but it may not—all you need is one buyer. And it is beautiful here— 3 miles from the Pacific Ocean, ocean and valley views, clean air, tropical breezes and so on—we will miss the natural beauty. Write when you can. Happy Holidays, Love, Helena and Joe